Graduate Research

Research is a central part of graduate education. As part of its commitment to graduate level research, the Graduate School supports a variety of initiatives that fund research and support its presentation. Please note that research funding and travel awards detailed here are only available to students whose programs are housed on the lakeside campuses. Students enrolled in graduate programs at the Health Sciences campus should consult with the Graduate School at the Health Sciences Division or the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing for research-related funding programs.

Research Funding Requests

Students who are approved in advance for a Research Funding Request may receive reimbursement of up to $300 for expenses related to the research and preparation of a dissertation, thesis, or major research paper in programs that do not already include a thesis. Once the approved activities are finished, please submit original receipts and a completed reimbursement form to the Awards Coordinator in the Graduate School to receive reimbursement for expenditures. The Graduate School will only grant one research funding award per student. Funds reimbursement must be claimed within the same academic year.

Conference Travel

The Graduate School encourages students to present their work at conferences throughout the United States and abroad. Students may apply for up to $500 in travel costs associated with presenting at one conference per academic year. Only conferences outside a 30 mile radius of Chicago will be considered for full funding. Conferences within range of the city may be eligible for reimbursement of conference fees only. Please note that travel awards are only available to current students whose programs are housed on the lakeside campuses. Students enrolled in graduate programs at the Health Sciences campus should consult with the Graduate School at the Health Sciences Division or the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing for travel-related funding programs. Students whose conferences fall after their thesis/dissertation defense date (for programs with a thesis/dissertation requirement) or after their final course (for those programs without a thesis/dissertation) are not eligible to apply for travel funding.

To be considered for funding, you must apply online BEFORE you travel. Log into our awards system at https://gsps.luc.edu, navigate to Award Forms -> Internal Awards section, and click the "Add" button to begin. You will be required to upload proof of acceptance to a conference (i.e. an email or letter of acceptance from the conference sponsor) and a preliminary budget in one single PDF. The budget should include expected travel and hotel costs, as well as conference registration and poster printing costs, but not food. You will receive an email to your luc.edu email account to let you know if your application has been approved or rejected. Once travel has been completed, please submit your receipts, related conference documents, and a completed reimbursement form to the Awards Coordinator in the Graduate School.

Applications for the travel awards will be accepted on the following schedule:

Applications will be accepted during May 15th – 19th for conferences between July 1 – September 30

Applications will be accepted during August 15th – 19th for conferences between October 1 – December 31

Applications will be accepted during November 15th – 19th for conferences between January 1 – March 31

Applications will be accepted during February 15th – 19th for conferences between April 1 – June 30

Applications will be accepted during April 15th - 19th for students who did not recieve conference confirmation during the appropriate application period, which includes all conferences during the current academic year.

Only one travel request per student can be granted per academic year. Funds are limited and will be awarded based on order of application and distribution of students in different programs, so while we do encourage you to apply earlier in the application period if you can, the applications will remain open for the full period, and simply applying on the first day of the application period will not guarantee any student funding.

3 Minute Thesis Competition

This competition began at the University of Queensland in Australia in 2008 as a way to "cultivate students' academic, presentation, and research communication skills... (by) explaining their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience." Universities across the world now participate in this unique event. Any graduate student conducting research for a thesis or dissertation can compete. The Graduate School will host Loyola's competition and the winner will be invited to compete in the annual regional Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools 3MT event later in the Spring. See the 3MT one pager for more details on Loyola's competition, and here for videos of 3MT competitions around the world.

This year's university-wide competition will be held on Tuesday, February 12th*, 2019 at 3:30pm in the Information Commons, 4th floor (Lake Shore Campus).

*departments can only have one representative for the university-wide competition, so internal departmental competitions must take place prior to this date. See the 3MT one pager for a description of the 3MT and how to host an internal competition for your department.

The winner of Loyola's competition in 2018 was David Ford, PhD candidate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Mr. Ford's talk focused on genetics of fly evolution that may lead to novel cancer treatements. The second place finisher was Rayne Bozeman, PhD candidate in Social Psychology, who gave a presentation entitled "The Ironic Effect of Regulatory Non-Fit on Confrontations of Racism." Michael Hantak, PhD candidate in Microbiology & Immunology, took third place with his presentation "Harnessing Stem Cells to Deliver Drugs to the Heart."

Research Mentoring Program

The Research Mentoring Program (RMP) is designed to partner graduate students who are working on their dissertation research with undergraduates who are interested in participating in research. The graduate student application deadline for this competitive summer fellowship is mid-December. Once the approved activities are finished, please submit original receipts and a completed reimbursement form to the Awards Coordinator in the Graduate School to receive reimbursement for expenditures.

The Research Mentoring Program will be on haitus during Summer 2019

Responsible Conduct In Research and Scholarship

Loyola University Chicago is committee to ensuring that all its faculty and students have the opportunity to be properly trained in the ethical and responsible conduct of research and scholarly integrity and are held to the highest possible ethical standards. All lakeside campus researchers and students receiving eternal funding from NSF or NIH or other federal agencies requiring training must complete this two-day course. Graduate students in the Health Sciences Division should follow the RCRS training structure on that campus. In addition, beginning Fall 2011, the Graduate School is requiring RCRS training for all matriculating PhD students and master’s students completing a thesis.

Other Resources

Office of Research ServicesThe Office of Research Services (ORS) assists faculty and students at the Lake Shore and Water Tower campuses with externally funded research, training and public service projects.

Institutional Review BoardAll use of human subjects including the use of any surveys, questionnaires, and interviews even with data previously obtained from human subjects must receive approval from the IRB.